You can tell what zone you are in by searching your address here. https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search The City of San Antonio looks like they allow for certain construction in the floodplain as long as it does not raise the water surface more than 6 inches,but the "no rise" applies to the floodway.

That just converts tax free funds into a taxable rental that you will have to pay to get your own money back to live on. 

Hello,We are investors from WA with a sfh in Moscow, ID.  We have purchased a larger home and made two full dwelling spaces; a kitchen on the main with 4 bedrooms and a kitchen in the basement with 2 full bedrooms.  T...

In the end; they would have had to dig-down the basement in order to achieve the necessary height, and then ended up just deciding to vacate the basement and convert it to "Heat and Storage" and ended up loosing all of their rentable potential from the basement level...Most of our clients see it as too much of a risk to try to keep the existing basement floor when it is around 6'-11" - 7'-1" rough.

I've converted the laundry room into a bathroom and can easily add 2-3 more bedrooms if needed, but not sure I want to go that route.

TAX CERTS are a bizzness not something you do as a passive investor or someone like me who is busy with their core business.. thankfully it was only 30k All that and the SC Hennepin Decision last year now causing states to re-write their laws so that if an investor does somehow end up converting a lien to a deed, that investor may be liable to tax defaulter for the difference between the lien and market value of the property, Tax Liens seem to be VERY MUCH a place where only the big money, interest investors can make it worthwhile.Fortunately, Texas has "immediate" possession Tax Deeds so we keep our focus there.

The groups with the largest marketing budgets get the most leads, which by sheer volume will convert more investors, which means more equity to buy deals.  

The tenant pool, however, is about 5 miles wide and 1 inch deep. 

Office space is in trouble, some will refi, some will convert to condos.

Finding a property with a garage or convertible income-producing space sub-$300K will be your biggest challenge.